Rather than go through the extreme hot weather and see the World Expo, I prefer ______ at an air-con

Rather than go through the extreme hot weather and see the World Expo, I prefer ______ at an air-conditioned room and watch TV. A. staying B. to stay C. stayed D. had stayed

The correct answer is A. staying. The sentence uses the structure "prefer doing something rather than doing something else," requiring parallel gerund forms. Since the first action is phrased as "go through" (a bare infinitive after "rather than"), the second action should use the gerund "staying" to maintain grammatical consistency in the "prefer...rather than..." construction.

This parallel structure emphasizes the contrast between the two choices, making the sentence flow naturally while maintaining grammatical correctness.